Sara Hall (Sweden)
Lund University
Department of Clinical Sciences
Sara Hall is a postdoc researcher at the Clinical Memory Research Unit, Malmö, Lund University, Sweden in Professor Oskar Hansson´s research group. Her research is focused on diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers in CSF and blood in Parkinsonian disorders, with a special interest in the cognitive aspects of these disorders. She is also a consultant physician at the Memory Clinic, Skane University Hospital, Malmö, Sweden. Sara graduated from Medical School at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden in 2002. During her residency at the Neurology Clinic in Lund, Sweden she was also active in the creation of the Parkinsonian cohort in the prospective, longitudinal Swedish BioFINDER study as part of her graduate studies. In 2017 she obtained her PhD, defending her thesis “Biomarkers in Parkinson’s disease and related disorders, Diagnostic value of biochemical markers, and their relation to disease progression”. The same year she became a specialist in Neurology. In 2017 she received the Bundy Academy Award for Neurology.

Moderator of 1 Session

 Conference Calendar
SYMPOSIUM

SYNUCLEINOPATHIES, PRIONS DISEASE, MECHANISMS & BIOMARKERS, DIAGNOSTICS

Session Type
SYMPOSIUM
Date
Sat, 19.03.2022
Session Time
09:10 AM - 11:10 AM
Room
ONSITE: 133-134
Chair(s)

Presenter of 1 Presentation

 Conference Calendar

Α-SYNUCLEIN RT-QUIC IDENTIFIES LEWY BODY DISEASE WITH A HIGH ACCURACY IN BOTH CLINICAL PARKINSON’S DISEASE AND NEUROPATHOLOGICAL LEWY BODY DISORDERS

Session Name
1560 - SYNUCLEINOPATHIES, PRIONS DISEASE, MECHANISMS & BIOMARKERS, DIAGNOSTICS (ID 216)
Session Type
SYMPOSIUM
Date
Sat, 19.03.2022
Session Time
09:10 AM - 11:10 AM
Room
ONSITE: 133-134
Lecture Time
09:40 AM - 09:55 AM
Presenter

Abstract

Aims

To evaluate the performance of α-synuclein (α-syn) RT-QuIC in two independent cohorts.

Methods

α-syn-RT-QuIC was used to analyze lumbar CSF in a clinical cohort from the Swedish BioFINDER study and in post-mortem ventricular CSF in a neuropathological cohort from the Arizona Study of Aging and Neurodegenerative Disorders/Brain and Body Donation Program (AZSAND/BBDP). The neuropathological cohort included 101 individuals with different brain disorders, including Lewy Body disorders (LBD) and controls. The clinical cohort included 50 PD, 14 PDD, 15 MSA, 15 PSP, 47 controls and two individuals who were included as controls but who later converted to PD or DLB (LBD).

Results

BioFINDER cohort: 94.0% of PD and 100% of PDD patients were α-syn-RT-QuIC positive compared to 17.0% of the controls (non-LBD-converters), 33.3% of PSP and 33.3% of MSA patients. Both controls who later converted to LBD were α-syn-RT-QuIC positive. α-syn-RT-QuIC identified LBD (i.e. PD, PDD and converters) vs. controls with a sensitivity of 95.5%, a specificity of 83.0% and a diagnostic accuracy of 90.3%.

AZSAND/BBDP: α-syn-RT-QuIC could identify neuropathologically verified standard LBD, including PD, PD with Alzheimer’s disease (PDAD) and DLB (n=25) vs. no LB pathology (n=53) with a sensitivity of 100%, a specificity of 94.3% and a diagnostic accuracy of 96.2%. However, of the individuals with non-standard Lewy body disorders (n=23) including AD with Lewy body disease not meeting criteria for DLB or PD, and incidental LBD, only 56.5% were α-syn-RT-QuIC positive.

Conclusions

α-syn-RT-QuIC in the CSF is highly sensitive and specific for identifying subjects with clinical or clinicopathologically-defined Lewy body disorders.

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